Shangaan Cultural Village

About

A taste of traditional Shangaan culture is on offer midway between the Motlatse Canyon and the Kruger National Park, at the Shangana Cultural Village, created by this local group.

Trained guides conduct one-hour tours of the village during the day, which can be extended to include song and dance performances or a drumming session. Midday tours with lunch are also available, as well as the nightly Evening Festival in the chief’s kraal.

On these tours, guests interact with Shangaan families, consult with a local sangoma (traditional healer) and get to meet the local chief, Israel Ngobeni. At the Evening Festival, guests are entertained by choirs, dancers and storytellers and enjoy a traditional meal in traditional homesteads. Mopani worms and venison are some of the local specialities on the menu.

In the centre of the village encircled by huts is the Marula Market. Craftspeople from far and wide bring their work for display at this venue, making for a wide range of merchandise made from clay, wood and stone.

The origins of the Shangaan, an offshoot of the Zulus, make for an intriguing tale of power struggles, cross-cultural influences and rich tradition.

Map

Panorama & Lowveld

Highlights

About

The Lowveld-Legogote region is the urban hub of Mpumalanga. It is home to the dynamic capital city Mbombela/Nelspruit and KaNyamazane township. It also contains the towns of White River and Hazyview, known for their arts & crafts, their good living and bonhomie.

All roads round here lead to the Kruger National Park (KNP) which is the region’s border and its biggest attraction. Another big attraction is the amazing Sudwala caves - the world’s oldest dolomite caves and the geological highlight of the Lowveld.

To the west of Mbombela/Nelspruit is the Blyde (Motlatse) River Canyon, the third-largest green canyon in the world and highlight of the Panorama Route. This is a scenic route along the escarpment edge, taking in the mountain towns of Graskop, Sabie, Pilgrim’s Rest and Lydenburg. To the east of Mbombela/Nelspruit lies the region dubbed the Wild Frontier. It is known for its lively gold rush history and mysterious stone ruins left by early indigenous people.

The Lowveld-Legogote region has strong ties with neighbouring Mozambique and Swaziland, offering an intriguing mix of culture, language and style.

The Lowveld is sometimes referred to as the ‘Slowveld’ –and it’s not hard to see why. It’s hot, subtropical, laid-back and friendly. This is a region that has always worked alongside the rhythms of the wild.

The word ‘legogote’ means ‘place of the skins’ and refers to the leather makers who once lived here in the Legogote Mountains. They were known for their skill in crafting leather thongs supplied to early ox-wagon travellers.

The Lowveld has long been a trade route and trading post. Explored by early hunters and pioneers, it developed on the back of the discovery of gold. From old Delagoa Bay (present-day Maputo) to Mbombela/Nelspruit and on to the Panorama Route, you will encounter colourful tales of early adventurers, prospectors, bootleggers, gamblers, traders, chiefs, kings and shysters.

Mbombela/Nelspruit is a big, busy city that includes historic Nelspruit, ever-growing residential developments, and the vibrant, sprawling township of Kanyamazane. Cutting right through the centre of the city is the Lowveld Botanical Garden. Popular among residents and tourists, the garden is set on the banks of the Nels River and is a delight of indigenous greenery. It has a large cycad collection and an African rainforest.

Mbombela/Nelspruit was a host city for the 2010 FIFA World CupTM. Its beautiful stadium is an icon of the city’s progress - along with the Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport, with an innovative design reflecting a modern African spirit. In Mbombela/Nelspruit you’ll find excellent hotels, restaurants and shopping malls. It is home to a mix of peoples and cultures, with an Afro-chic flavour. From Mbombela/Nelspruit you can do artists’ routes and township tours, visit casinos, nightclubs, and artistic and historical spots. And yet within a short time you can be right in the middle of the KNP gazing out onto the ancient African wilderness.

Incredible mountain scenery and excellent outdoor action - that’s the spirit of Mpumalanga’s Panorama Route. From Mbombela/Nelspruit the route heads east through subtropical foothills and farmlands, into the mountains of the Blyde (Motlatse) River Canyon. The route takes you along a series of historic mountain passes to the towns of Pilgrim’s Rest, Sabie, Graskop, Mashishing/Lydenburg and Orighstad. Scenic highlights include God’s Window, the Three Rondavels and the Bourke’s Luck Potholes. The Blyde River Canyon Reserve is also there - home to plenty of wildlife and birdlife and some of the best views in South Africa.

Pilgrim’s Rest is where gold was first discovered and is a heritage town. Graskop and Sabie are timber centres, and renowned for their adventure activities. There is a wide choice of things to do here, from gorge swinging, rock climbing, abseiling, and hot air ballooning, to river rafting, bungee jumping, quad biking, fishing, sailing and 4x4-ing.

Look out for

The Kruger National Park - Flagship of Mpumalanga, the Kruger National Park has good infrastructure and services, with routes, game drives, guides, camps, watering holes and other animal viewing spots. Your chances of a lion sighting are the highest in the central Kruger Park, where nutritious grasslands support a diversity of creatures. There are great spots for humans too, from luxury lodges to remote camping hideouts.

Mbombela/Nelspruit - Mpumalanga’s capital city is a friendly and fast-moving mix of cultures. These include Tsonga, Pedi, Swazi, Mozambican, Afrikaans, English, Dutch, German and French. The city is a central place from which to access the Lowveld and Panorama regions. You can take a cultural tour of Kanyamazane township, and visit arts & craft centres, traditional healers and shebeens. You can see an excellent collection of South African art at the Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature buildings, or spend a quiet hour or two in the Lowveld Botanical Garden in the heart of the city.

Sudwala caves - The world’s oldest known cave system, said to be nearly 3 billion years old, the Sudwala Caves are completely surreal. In the heart of the Mankelekele mountains lies this vast subterranean city of passages, tunnels, caverns and chambers. There are timeless dripstone formations and eerie bottomless lakes. The highlight is the Crystal Tour – a five-hour 2km hike into the heart of the caves culminating in a cavern containing incredible stalactites and stalagmites.

Outdoor action - Sabie is the adventure capital of the Lowveld and Panorama, offering just about everything you can think of in an incredible canyon and mountain setting. Experience the adrenalin rush of the world's highest cable gorge swing with a 68m (18-storey) freefall. You’ll go from 0-160km/h in 2.3 seconds! The hiking is exceptional, and there are excellent rock climbing, paragliding, and abseiling opportunities.

The Artists Route - The beautiful setting and laidback lifestyle of the Lowveld has long attracted artists and creative souls. In the White River/Hazyview area you can visit the studios and showrooms of some of the country’s foremost artists. These include potters, weavers, candle makers, glass-blowers, sculptors and even taxidermists. Both these towns are hip and happening, offering charming eating spots and great rural retail therapy. For good shopping head for Casterbridge Centre on the edge of White River, and Perry’s Bridge in Hazyview.

Kaapsehoop village - Explore the misty heights of this historic gold mining village. It is popular for its quaint coffee shops, pubs, bistros and more than a hundred wild horses.

Innibos Cultural Festival - A music and arts festival held in the Nelspruit/White River area in June and July. This is a cultural ‘must-do’. For 14 days the Lowveld rocks. This arts festival is held at over 60 theatre and music spots across the province and features everything from big stage concerts to assorted theatre and cultural activities. There are also more than 400 craft stalls to explore.

When to go

To Do

Gallery

Events

Articles & Blogs

Heads & Tales from Lydenburg

Place of the Long Grass - On the Great Escarpment of Mpumalanga, Lydenburg has a history and magic that pervades the town and its surroundings.

Imagine a young boy, Ludwig von Bezing, growing up exploring the secluded river valleys and kloofs of this mountainous region in Mpumalanga. One day in 1957, he finds strange pottery heads quite unlike anything he has seen before. Over the years he re-visits this site and adds seven of these heads and masks to his collection of curiosities.

Ngwenya Glass

Close to Swaziland’s Ngwenya (crocodile) border post, a group of Swazi craftsmen and women are hard at work recycling glass into a range of fantastic forms. As a recent visit to the Ngwenya Glass workshop revealed, they’re very, very good at it. The showroom shimmers and sparkles with the astonishing range of glassware on display. From the fragile beauty of tall champagne flutes balanced on the thinnest of stems, to the glistening heaviness of elephants and hippos sculpted from glass, there are so many products of astonishing beauty that it’s hard to...

Bushveld Oranges

Driving from Hoedspruit to Ohrigstad, it seems like every single resident of the province is on the roadside selling oranges, and after a few kilometres I noticed that these oranges were nearly the size of my head, so I pulled over to investigate further. Large they were indeed, and juicy, soft and sweet. What surprised me more was that the orange & curio stalls lined the road right through the pass that holds the Strydom tunnel – as a Western Caper I am used to the mountain passes being rather devoid of humanity! Needless to say I...

A stranger's shoe

I recently went on a South African road inspection. Ok, not exactly, but after driving from Cape Town through the Waterberg around Polokwane to Nelspruit and then back to Cape Town, it certainly felt like it! I've put up a few of the more interesting things I discovered on this trip in the blogs already, but given the nature of today's date, I thought I'd reflect on one of my more unusual experiences.

On the final leg of my journey, I decided to make a straight run from Hoedspruit to Joburg - I was tired of finding interesting things, and was looking...